A chance encounter with a snipe

We had another brilliant sunny morning here in the eastern Borders. I as out looking for hares again, but the local farmer was ploughing his fields near the site where I have been seeing the hares and there was to much disturbance for the them and they obviously went else-where.

I had passed a wet flush a couple of miles back so I thought I would check it out for feeding birds like waders such as snipe or if I was lucky a woodcock. I parked the car and got my gear out and made my way along the hedgerow. I scanned the area which is quite close to the road for signs of life. On the first look there seemed to be nothing there, I looked gain and this time I saw something twitch in the grass. I concentrated on it for a while and suddenly realised it was a snipe. I was cowering down in the grass but eventually sat up so I could see it properly. It was about five metres away from me, so very carefully I set the camera up and managed to get some pictures. I must say for about 10 minutes I thought it was stuffed as it didn’t move very much at all but I am very pleased that got these images.